Re: Trademark question

["Gene Kim-Eng" <techwr -at- genek -dot- com>]

This is exactly the issue.  The classic case is the Otis Corporation's
creation of the word "escalator."  A court eventually ruled that the
word "escalator" (lower case) had become a generically used term
for a moving stairway, and Otis lost it as a trademark (they still
have "Escalator").  Usage hinges primarily on risk, i.e., what are
the chances that your product name will become so ubiquitous that 
people will come to call every similar product by that name?  If 
you look at Kleenex you will see that the usage is *always* 
"Kleenex Brand tissue" or "KleenexTM tissue," never just "Kleenex," 
and never *ever* "kleenex."  Same for the other examples where
the names are invented.  OTOH,  when you select existing common 
terms for your product name ("word") your chances of being able 
to register them are pretty slim, and MS apparently isn't terribly 
worried that "Microsoft Word" or "Word 2003" are going to 
become generic terms for word processing software.  

Gene Kim-Eng


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Zuercher, Darrell" <dzuerche -at- tva -dot- gov>

> Although I have not encountered this issue in my technical writing
> career, I have encountered another issue in creative writing that I find
> applicable here. I think that legal counsel is trying to keep the
> trademark from becoming generic by associating it with the word
> "software" whenever it is used. They seem to be trying to keep the
> trademark from becoming the latest in the
> "Kleenex"/"Coke"/"Frigidaire"/"Rollerblade"/"Google" cycle.

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